FREE Email Newsletter

Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

A resilient green sea turtle has been returned to the ocean off the Florida coast after ground-breaking treatment to repair injuries caused by a collision with a motor boat. Doctors used a method usually reserved for humans to save the animal's life.
If you're having trouble watching this video, try downloading the latest version of Flash Player or contacting your IT department.

Wall Street may just be waking up to signs of a slowing economy, but in small towns like Tehachapi, California tough times never stopped.
If you're having trouble watching this video, try downloading the latest version of Flash Player or contacting your IT department.
Have any comments or questions about our video editions of IMPO? Or do you have a video you'd like to see featured in one of our deployments? Email me at Rachel.

Hiring picked up slightly in July and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent, an optimistic sign after the worst day on Wall Street in nearly three years.
If you're having trouble watching this video, try downloading the latest version of Flash Player or contacting your IT department.

Nadia Bilchick explains why a company in Georgia is making chopsticks for China. Making 600 chopsticks per minute, a Korean immigrant's company is producing up to six million chopsticks per day to export to China.
If you're having trouble watching this video, try downloading the latest version of Flash Player or contacting your IT department.

ZHUKOVSKY, Russia (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed Wednesday to keep the development of national aerospace industries a top priority for his government.
Putin spoke at Moscow's International Aviation and Space Show at Zhukovsky air base outside the capital, saying that supporting aircraft makers will be an "absolute strategic priority.

WEST POINT, Ga. (AP) — Suppliers for the Kia Motors plant in West Point say they're considering expanding their workforces in preparation for the automaker's plan to construct the Optima sedan.
The LaGrange Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/nVkuYl) that the Georgia plant is scheduled to begin producing the 2012 model-year Optima later this year.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A top lobbyist representing the makers of corporate jets and other business aircraft is urging industry employees to tell President Barack Obama to stop criticizing their customers.
Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, told employees of Rockwell Collins during a rally in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday they need to speak out in defense of their jobs.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida will spend $2 million on three new training programs for seaport, air cargo and other international trade jobs.
Workforce Florida, a public-private job-creation partnership, announced the Quick Response Training grants Wednesday in Jacksonville.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — Renewable energy development in Kansas could help lure businesses to the state, Gov. Sam Brownback said.
"I want Kansas to be known as the Renewable State," Brownback said. "To get there, we have to balance the three E's: Energy, Economy and the Environment.

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — Boeing said Wednesday that it recently completed the flight tests required for type certification of its new 787-8 aircraft with Rolls Royce engines.
The final flight occurred Saturday onboard the ninth 787 to be built. The 14-person crew completed emergency simulations during a 90-minute flight between Billings, Mont.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Polk County supervisors have approved a zero-interest loan and a grant to help with an expansion project at the Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations plant just north of Des Moines.
KCCI-TV (http://bit.ly/qbKF5k ) says the board OK'd a $50,000 loan and a $50,000 grant to support the company's nearly $57 million project.

LAURINBURG, N.C. (AP) — A plant that makes Purell hand sanitizer is closing in Scotland County, leaving about 70 people out of work.
The Fayetteville Observer reports (http://bit.ly/qAJNOh ) that production at QualPak LLC ended Friday. A spokesman for QualPak's parent company says a complete shutdown is expected by year's end.

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) — Abbott Laboratories said Tuesday it will spend $230 million to build a powdered milk manufacturing facility in Jiaxing, China.
Abbott said the plant will make nutritional products for infants and children. It will employ about 300 people when it goes into operation in 2013.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Electric car drivers will get a charge out of a block-long stretch of a downtown Portland street that's been dubbed "Electric Avenue," and it may also help the automotive industry and others make important decisions as the use of electric cars evolves.
Seven electric charging stations from six different manufacturers have been installed at Portland State University as part of a two-year study that will examine which chargers get the most use, who's plugging in, and what they do while their car drinks up a charge.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Companies paid higher prices for tobacco, pickup trucks and pharmaceuticals in July, driving underlying wholesale inflation up by the most in six months.
This measure of inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is known as the core Producer Price Index.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are unlikely to block Google Inc. from buying cellphone maker Motorola Mobility since the acquisition could help drive competition in the fast growing mobile device market.
But the deal comes as Google faces scrutiny in the U.S. and overseas from antitrust regulators concerned that the Web search giant may be abusing its clout as a major gateway to the Internet to muscle its way into new businesses and stifling competition in the process.

MARSHVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A spokesman for a turkey processing plant in Union County says the company is investigating an ammonia leak that forced the evacuation of more than 100 people in the North Carolina community.
Police say ammonia leaked from a refrigeration unit about 4 a.m.

By Vanessa Ho
SEATTLE (AP) — Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city had won a coveted $20 million federal grant to invest in weatherization. The unglamorous work of insulating crawl spaces and attics had emerged as a silver bullet in a bleak economy - able to create jobs and shrink carbon footprint - and the announcement came with great fanfare.